/Creative Tourism, Community and Design Praxis

Track A 1119

Accessing Universal Design Features towards CreatingAccessible Tourism Facilities in Kuala Lumpur

Ati Rosemery MOHO ARIFFINDepartment of Architecture Faculty of Built EnvironmentUniversity of MalayaMALAYSIAoo_olombino@um.edu.my

Dr. Mastura ADAMDepartment of Architecture Faculty of Built EnvironmentUniversity of MalayaMALAYSIAmosturo@um.edu.my

Norjumawati SABRANSustainable Science CentreUniversity of MalayaMALAYSIAnorjumawoti@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Accessible tourism is where the tourist destinotions ond focilities provided by the hostcountry or ploce are barrier - free to all users especially persons with disabilities(PWDs). Nevertheless, Kuala Lumpur (KL) being a developing city, there are still issueson seamless mobility and improvement to be made on the accessibility to the PWDswhen they travel in the city even though it has been declared to be barrier-free city in2010. This study aims to investigate the provision and the quality of facilities accessibleby the PWDs in the selected tourist attraction buildings in the city of KL. These tourismfacilities have been accessed internally and externally by the trained buildingsauditors. Using the universal design requirements derived from the MalaysianStandards (MS) as benchmark document, accessibility audits had been carried out infive (5) tourism buildings. The findings revealed that the building are equipped anddesign to be the disable friendly. However, certain facilities does not fUlfil the universaldesign standards according to MS 1184: 2002 Code of Practice on Access for DisabledPeople to Public Buildings and MS 1331: 2003 Code of Practice on Access for DisabledPeople Outside Buildings. Thus, this has opened up possibilities for physicalimprovements that may be implemented in a short term and long term basis for thebuilding owners, operators and relevant parties involved in enhancing accessibility intourism buildings to make it socially sustainable.

Keywords: Accessible tourism; Accessibility; Persons with disabilities (PWDs); UniversalDesign.

Ati Rosemery MOHO ARIFFINI, Mastura ADAM, Norjumawati SABRAN

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INTRODUCTION

Accessible tourism is an emerging market niche that provides the rights of disabledpersons to enjoy equal benefits when they travel independently or with assistance.It is where the tourist destinations and facilities provided by the host country or placeare accessible to all people especially persons with disabilities (PWDs).Accessible tourism is an access requirement needed by the disabled persons (visualimpairment, hearing impairment, physical impairment, learning difficulty (i.e.autism), cerebral palsy) including children in prams, mother with small children,pregnant woman and elderly when they are travelling (Darcy and Dickson, 2009; Alenet.al, 2012; Schitko and Loosekot, 2012; Akinci, 2013). It is also important when PWDstravel all around the world they are able to move and use every accessible designfacilities within their environment independently with the best option withoutassistance from everyone. Even though there various terms to describe 'accessibletourism' such as 'inclusive tourism', 'barrier free tourism' or 'disabled tourism', theconcept of this type of tourism is still similar which is to provide facilities or serviceswithout barriers for all tourism activities. It can be said that accessible tourism fallsalso under the category of 'sustainable tourism' as it aims to provide equity to allusers.

In addition, the idea of 'Accessible Tourism for All' is becoming common globallyworld through what has been mooted at the United Nation Convention on the Rightsof Person with Disabilities. During this international treaty signed by 160 signatories(including Malaysia) nations agreed to protect the rights and dignity of the personwith disabilities (United Nations, 2012). This convention aimed in giving equality rightsto disable persons to live independently and move freely among able-bodied personsthrough communication, reasonable accommodation, and universal design (Ibid).However, being a new resolution there are still issues on seamless mobility and lack ofaccessibility to the PWDs when they travel as these there are still very few facilitiesprovided according to the universal design standards. For instance, tourism facilitiessuch as continuous pathways, tactile surfaces, clear and bright signage should provideappropriately to the PWDs (Luiza, 2010).

By 2020, KL city envisage to become a world - class metropolis and achieve a high -income nation status (The Sun Daily, 2016). It is also expected that by 2025, Malaysiatotal Gross Domestic Product (GOP)will be 5.8% or RM95.96 billion through its directcontribution in tourism (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2015). Furthermore, thetourist arrivals in Malaysia· have growth of 6.7% compared to 2013 attracted27,437,315 tourists (Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia, 2014). In addition,Kuala Lumpur City Hall as one of the government established local authority aims todouble the foreign tourist arrivals and quadruple tourism income from RM19 billion in2013 to RM79 billion by 2025 (Tourism Unit, 2015).

Due to the emerging global market of accessible tourism, pressure is set for Malaysiaespecially KL to also be able to accommodate the tourists and visitors who havedisabilities and special needs to be given equal access, rights and opportunities toenjoy their travel and leisure experiences.

The Malaysian government have developed and established some guidelines in orderto ensure the provision for the PWDs has been fulfilled in all public buildings. Theseguidelines are MS 1184: 2002 Code of Practice on Access for Disabled People to PublicBuildings and MS 1331: 2003 Code of Practice on Access for Disabled People OutsideBuildings. The guidelines emphasize on the universal design features namely internal

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Creative Tourism, Community and Design PraxisTrack A 1121

facilities (entrances of the doors and lobby, information counter, ramps, corridor,doors, stairways, elevators, lifts, emergency exits, handrails, guiding blocks, public andaccessible toilets) and external facilities (public transport area, drop off area,accessible parking space and pedestrian access).

METHODOLOGY

This study refers to MS 1184 and MS 1331 as key documents on design standards andaudit survey on the current accessibility state the attraction buildings have beencarried out. Whilst observation technique has been adopted in which the trainedbuildings auditors employs;i. Audit surveys checklist (focus on in the internal and external building).ii. Observation mapping and visual photograph survey.

During the access audit, the trained accessible buildings auditors were assisted by theoperations or management of the selected tourism facilities to obtain informationpertaining to the universal design facilities provided in those buildings. The keyobjective of this study was to carry out accessibility audits on selected popular touristattractions buildings in the city of Kl namely National Planetarium (NP), Islamic ArtsMuseum Malaysia (IAMM), National Museum (NM), National Textiles Museum (NTM)and Royal Museum (RM).

In this study, researchers have derived the table from Jamaluddin and Abdul Kadir(2012) study on the accessibility tourist attraction access audit. The table was basedon the trained accessible buildings auditors measurement and observation of thosetourist attractions buildings facilities. The items are derived from the MS checklist tothe scoring system indicating the level of accessibilities of those buildings. The scoresare based on five (5) point scale (5 = Excellent/all requirements are met, 4 =Good/most requirement are met, 3= Fair/equal amount of requirements compliedand not complied, 2 = Satisfactory/most requirements are not met and 1 =Poor/facility is not provided). These scores will determine the accessibilities of theaudit buildings. The checklist and observation mapping are analyzed respectively.

CASE STUDIES

There were five (5) case study buildings that have been accessed for these universaldesigns study. The buildings have been selected amongst the top listed touristattractions in the heart of KL city. These were also buildings which allowed access tothe auditing exercise out of eight (8) shortlisted buildings that the researchers seekpermission from the operations or management of the buildings in KL.

Ati Rosemery MOHO ARIFFINI, Mastura ADAM, Norjumawati SABRAN

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Figure 1.0 Buildinglayout of National

Planetarium

Creative Tourism, Community and Design PraxisTrack A 1122

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Figure 2.0 Building layout ofIslamic Arts Museum Malaysia

Figure 4.0 Building layout of NationalTextile Museum

Figure 3.0 Building layout of NationalMuseum

Figure 5.0 Building layout of RoyalMuseum

National Planetarium (Np)The National Planetarium (NP) (Figure 1.0) is one of the popular tourists' attractionsthat have unique architecture and facilities provided to the visitors. It was establishedin 1994 under the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation as part of thegovernment's commitment to the development of science and technology in Malaysia(The National Planetarium, 2016). This educational building provided many programsfor school children with facilities that include an exhibition gallery, a viewing gallerywith binoculars, a theatre, an observatory with telescope, an outdoor ancientobservatory park, and a spaced themed picnic building (Tourism Unit, 2015). Thiscomplex is situated on the top of a hill at Jalan Perdana seat among other KL citytourist attractions. At this moment, the exhibition gallery has been temporarily closeduntil July 2016 due to the development of the facilities provided to the visitors.

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/ Creative Tourism, Community and Design PraxisTrack A 1123

Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (lamm)Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAMM) (Figure 2.0) is another prominent tourists'attraction. The museum has housed many Islamic artifacts and other Islamic artreferences. It been awarded various recognitions such as Platinum Award winner fortourist attraction (culture, arts and heritage) by Kuala Lumpur Mayor Tourism Awardin 2014 (Kuala Lumpur City Hall, 2014) and Top 10 Travelers' Choice Museum (10th inAsia) by TripAdvisor in 2014 (IAMM Newsletter, 2014). It is established in December1998 due to the growth of Islamic art and managed by the Albukhary Foundation(Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia Visitors Guide, 2016).

National Museum (Nm)/ Muzium NegaraNational Museum (NM) (Figure 3.0) is one of the oldest museums building in Malaysiaopened in 1963. It is managed under the administration of the Departments ofMuseum Malaysia, Ministry of Tourism and Culture as its function preserving artifactsand educational activities such as research, collect, record and publish all the heritageof the country's history (Muzium Negara, 2016). This unique architecture is aninterpretation of traditional Malay architecture house and Malay motifs on a largerscale. It is a two story building consists of four (4) themed galleries; early history, theMalay kingdoms, the colonial era and Malaysia today (Muzium Negara Visitors Guide,2016). Accessible parking area is also provided by the museum management to thePWDs especially for wheelchair user. However, the PWDs can inform the managementif they need further assistance to park their car near the grand entrance.

National Textile Museum (Ntm)The National Textile Museum (NTM) (Figure 4.0) is a specialized museum, whose roleis to collect, conserve, document, and display the diverse national textiles collection,especially the traditional handwork of the multi-ethnic society of Malaysia. It is alsomanaged under the Departments of Museum Malaysia, Ministry of Tourism, andCulture. It is located near the famous historical district of Sultan Abdul Samad buildingconsisted of 2 Y2-storey building and was gazetted on 13 October 1983 as a heritagebuilding in the Government Gazette PU (A) 423, Order of Old Monuments and SitesHistorical Land (No.3), Bendapurba Act 1976 (Textile Museum, 2016). It is openedto public since 9 January 2010 and has five galleries; Pohon Budi, Pelangi, TelukBerantai, Ratna Sari and Saindera (National Textile Museum Visitors Guide, 2016).The building is accessible to the visitors at the ground and first floor only. The publicarea consists of galleries, resource centre, museum shop and cafeteria. Themanagement of the museum provided only one accessible parking at the side of thebuilding, which is demarcated properly. However, the PWDs' visitors have to informthe management first if they wanted to use the parking as it is not directly access tothe accessible pathway.

Royal Museum (Rm)Royal Museum (RM) (Figure 5.0) is one of the latest tourism products in Malaysia. Itis also managed by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, under the Departments ofMuseum Malaysia as NM and NTM. This 11 hectares site is located on the slope of ahill of Bukit Petaling, where the main visitor access is along Jalan Syed Putra.Previously, this building is a family home for the Chinese tin tycoon Chan Wing in1928, then it was used as the residence of the Japanese Governor during World War IIoccupation and later in 1957 it became the official residence of the King and Queen ofMalaysia until 2011 (Jabatan Muzium Malaysia, 2016). It is now converted into amuseum and is open to public.

FINDING AND DISCUSSIONSThe accessible facilities provided in those tourist attraction buildings was evaluatedand summarized in Table 1.0 according to the audit survey checklist and observationAti Rosemery MOHO ARIFFINI, Mastura ADAM, Norjumawati SABRAN

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through photographs respectively. The findings 'revealed that IAMM (58.82%)provided better accessible facilities than the other tourist attraction buildings.In other words, IAMM meet most of the universal design requirements in terms ofprovision of accessibility facilities for the external and internal. This result is followedrespectively by NP (44.71%), NM (43.53%), NTM (42.35%), and RM (35.39%). Majorityof the buildings (according to the green indicator, level of accessibility = 3) fairly havefulfil the requirements but not meet and complied with MS 1184 and MS 1331 as wellas the universal design standards.

Table 1.0 Evaluations of tourist attraction buildings based on design requirementsFrom MS 1184 and MS 1331

Buildings NationalPlanetarium

IslamicArts

MuseumNationalMuseum

NationalTextileMuseum

RoyalMuseum

External

From the result, IAMM also provides better facilities (according to the blue indicator,level of accessibility = 4) to cater PWDs in terms of entrance and reception area,pathway/corridor, room and spaces as well as signage in the building. For instance,the building has better information counter rather than other case study buildings asit is more accessible for PWDs to enter from the main entrance and drop off areaAti Rosemery MOHO ARIFFINI, Mastura ADAM, Norjumawati SABRAN

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towards main lobby to the counter. The drop off and entrance area is also give a senseof grand welcoming to the visitors. However, the information counter is notconveniently designed as it is too high to reach for wheelchair users.

o

1'1 ii' ,.1' ,},...~'''. .._. "_

c-: ~"Figure6.1The drop off area provide senseof

welcoming to the visitors.Figure6.2 there are no warning signsorcolour contrast asthe curb ramp is not

visually visible to users

Other than that, the accessible toilet in NP is quite well designed as it has anautomatic door to ease the wheelchair user. Besides that, the internal dimension isalso sufficient for single person with wheelchair to mobilise. However, the wash basinand mirror have high (850m), this dimensions are fixed according to the universalstandards and can be uncomfortable for the wheelchair users to reach.

Figure7.1 The NPaccessibletoilet hasanautomatic door to easethe wheelchair user.

Figure7.2 Thewash basinand mirror is notcomfortable for wheelchair user as it is a bit

too high (850mm) to reach.

RM is the least accessible for PWDs visitors. This is due to the lacks of UD facilitiesincorporated in its building design (according to the yellow indicator, level ofaccessibility = 1) in terms of its internal and external building. For instance, there areno accessible parking space and drop off area provision for the PWDs. The visitorshave also to walk up the hill to get to the museum from the main gate and it isimpossible for a wheelchair user to go up on their own due to the gradient of slope.However, as alternative the management has provided buggy services for the PWDsand elders from the main gate to the museum. Yet it was not sure as how thewheelchair users are brought up on to and brought down from the buggy.

Figure8.1There are no designated accessibleparking spacefor PWDsat the main

entrance.

Figure8.2 Thewheel chair userwill havedifficulty to up on their own becausethe

slope of the hill.

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Creative Tourism, Community and Design PraxisTrack A 1126

In general, all the case study buildings also lack of facilities such as guiding blocks andcurb ramps/ramps. In terms of guiding blocks, all of the tourist attraction buildingshave poor facilities to the PWDs. While, NP, NM and RM lack of curb ramps/rampsfacilities in the building. Even though the facilities are mandatory to be provided butthese external facilities are less accessible because it is in poor condition or notprovided at all (according to the yellow indicator, level of accessibility = 1) by thebuilding management. For instance, the access from the pedestrian crossing (fromSultan Abdul Samad building) to the NTM is not accessible for PWDs. This is becausethere are no ramps and guiding tactile provided to lead the visitors from the oppositeroad to the main entrance. Guiding blocks and ramps are important for visuallyimpaired people because they depend more on the tactile as guidance. If theguiding blocks are not properly installed it will be difficult and confusing for thevisually impaired people to move independently.

Figure9.1 The PWDsaccessibleparking inNM is not properly demarcated.

Figure9.2 The ramp and guiding tactile isnot availablefor PWDsto crossthepedestrian towards the museum.

Besides that, on the positive side, these tourist attraction buildings have providedother additional facilities to the visitors. For instance, IAMM, NM and NTM haveprovided the wheelchair facilities to the PWDs visitors. IAMM also providedwheelchair and stroller room as well as other facilities such as restaurant, shop,fountain garden, special galleries, auditorium, education centre, children's andscholar's library provided for its visitors. Whilst, NM complex have provided wheel-chair facilities for the PWDS, guided tours (by the museum volunteer in English,French, Japanese, Malay and Mandarin languages), Automatic Teller Machine (ATM),Muslim prayer room as well as lost and find centre.

However, it is noted that the cases are mostly older building, hence during the time itwas designed and built there had been no requirements or guidelines on accessibility.These buildings will need to take some measures and prepare funding to renovatetheir facilities. From the access audit, it is recommended that the operators orbuilding management to provide better universal design facilities as so it can bring inmore visitors and income to the venues. For instance, audio assistance such asmuseum wearable is one of the options to the visual impairment visitors who come tothe museum or exhibition venues as it will allows them to experience the surroundingareas (Sparacino, 2002). Furthermore, informative braille plates for the visualimpaired as well as other materials that have large fonts and colour contrasts are oneof the best initiatives to provide better universal design facilities in the touristattraction buildings (Barrier Free Access (Hong Kong) Limited, 2015).

Accessible tourism has also contributed to the tourism businesses owners especiallytour operators, travel agents and hotel providers. This is because PWDs can be a loyaland repeated customer to the same provider year by year. For instance, 12% of allovernight domestic trips between January and June 2009 were made by visitors withaccess needs contributing almost £1 billion to the England's' economy (Departmentfor Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS), 2008). While in 2011, Malaysia had received15% of the tourist are PWDs and 20% are the seniors which amounting to a total ofAti Rosemery MOHO ARIFFINI, Mastura ADAM, Norjumawati SABRAN

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RM20.4billion (Kwan, 2012). It shows that more business owners have the awarenessto provide better accommodation, facilities, attractions, services offer and detailedinformation to the disabled. A good first impression will encouraged the PWDs totravel and likely to come again to the same place if the conditions are right. Due tothis, it will encourage more tourists visiting the tourism buildings facilities and attractmore PWDs in the South East Asian region (Kwan, 2012).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this study supports the Disabled Person Act, MS 1184: 2002 and othersupporting document to provide rights of travel and use of tourist buildings facilitiesfor PWDs. Based on the audit survey and observation made, some of the attractivebuildings have met partially the universal design standards and MS 1184: 2002 Codeof Practice on Access for Disabled People to Public Buildings and MS 1331: 2003 Codeof Practice on Access for Disabled People Outside Buildings. However, there arebuildings that require stronger efforts in improving their accessibility level. It is highlyrecommended that some of the facilities needs to be upgraded and improved to referto the universal design standards, MS 1184: 2002 and MS 1331: 2003. It is alsosuggested that those plans to upgrade and refurbish their facilities may be executed inphases such as improvement in short term and long term basis according to the levelof condition in each audited buildings. These guidelines and its constant reviews areimportant to the future well-being of the PWDs as we move towards a betterdeveloped nation. Careful and correct implementation of the universal design isessentially important to adapt because it can efficiently cater the needs of the PWDsand provide pleasant and barrier free travel experiences.

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Ati Rosemery MOHO ARIFFINI, Mastura ADAM, Norjumawati SABRAN